


The Reformation of Vlad

by PrismalMelonMan



Series: Second Chances [4]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Wake Up Call, vlad is in for a ride
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-13 16:11:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21496888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrismalMelonMan/pseuds/PrismalMelonMan
Summary: Vlad Masters has a lot to repent for. (this will be multiple chapters because theres a LOT he has to repent)https://prismalpremier.tumblr.com/
Relationships: Jack Fenton/Maddie Fenton
Series: Second Chances [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1547047
Comments: 9
Kudos: 44





	The Reformation of Vlad

Vlad woke up, confident and ready to make amends...his way, at least. However, his way involved cheesy gift baskets...for Maddie and Danny only.

He climbed into his car, a Bugatti Chiron, after placing the baskets in the passenger seat, and drove to FentonWorks. 

He got out and knocked on the door. This would be easy-peasy. He didn't even know why he'd been nervously monolouging to his cat the night before.   
He had this in the bag.

Maddie opened the door, and her cheerful smile instantly fell. "Vlad."

"Maddie, dear, hello. How are you today?" Vlad asked.

"I _was_ doing well."

"Oh, don't be like that. I brought you and Daniel—"

"He prefers _Danny_ and I know you know it, Vlad. He told you so at the reunion."

"Fine, yes. I brought you and _Danny_ gift baskets."

"Why?"

"To apologize for being a jerk." He grinned.

Maddie was less than impressed with Vlad's "effort". In fact, to her, he wasn't even trying. First of all, it was _only_ for her and Danny. He obviously still blamed Jack for the accident; he wasn't even going to try to forgive and make amends with Jack.

She bet he didn't even know that Jack blamed himself, later realized that one mistake hurt Vlad like that, nearly killed him. That the reason they never visited him while he was hospitalized was because Jack felt like Vlad wouldn't want to ever see him again. And yet, he still wanted to be friends, close friends with Vlad again.

Her face, no matter how she tried to hide it, was stuck in a scowl. She was infuriated. How could he come here, expecting forgiveness, and yet still focusing on only her and only Danny, as he had been for the last two years, since that reunion he only staged to be close to her after twenty-something years.

"Thank you, Vlad, though you should go. I'm sorry, but bygones will not be bygones until you actually make an effort to be better. First of all, with Jack before anyone else. Just _talk_ to him, and maybe you'll see that he's not the idiot you've chalked him up to be in your tiny, close-minded, selfish head of yours!" She couldn't keep it in anymore. She had gone so long of smiling and nodding, letting Vlad have _some_ of her anger, some of her true feelings about the man he'd become over the course of twenty long years, like the time he tricked Maddie and Danny into a trip to the Rockies. Again, Maddie and Danny. Only Maddie and Danny. Always, just Maddie and Danny.

She knew why, though. She knew why he was obsessed with Danny and herself after those years. She'd never told Jack, and frankly, she felt guilty about it. 16 years ago, she had gone to visit Vlad. At first, it was just to say "Hello," and ask how he was doing after the accident. She didn't even know how it happened, but she ended up sleeping with Vlad, and then nine months later, had Danny. Thankfully, Jack had blue eyes and black hair, and while his eyes weren't the same blue, most people didn't pay too much attention to things like that, so she was able to say that Danny was Jack's and that she'd never gone to see Vlad.

Vlad's cocky smile went slack. Maddie had never outright yelled at him, at least not like this. He thought things had been pretty okay between the two of them lately, but he was gravely mistaken. 

"Maddie, I—"

"No, Vlad. I don't want to hear it. I'm sick of your half-baked apologies and cheap attempts to get me to leave my husband!"

"But Maddie," he protested again.

"Vlad, it's final. Leave. Don't come back unless you're actually going to make a *real* attempt to change. I'm not going to force you to be better or to change. Honestly, I don't care what you do anymore, as long as you're not bringing my son into it!"

The door was shut in his face, and he stood on the WELCOME mat of FentonWorks.  
This had by far not gone the way he thought it would.  
She was right, though. He knew. He figured he could charm his way out of trying. Ever since he'd mastered his powers, things came easily. Hell, his election as Mayor was because of his powers. Maddie slamming the door in his face was more of a reality check than seeing himself floating through space. Her words echoed through his mind.   
"_My_ son."   
"_My_ son."  
"_My_ son."  
"_My son_."

But he knew she meant, "_Jack's_ son." It had been that way for 16 years and it would remain that way until Vlad actually tried to be a good person. Only then would he be worthy of the title "Dad" someday. And as Vlad knew, any man could be a Father, but only few were worthy of being called Dad.  
Vlad, himself had a Father and a Mother. Mom and Dad were what he called them, but they were the reason he ran to Wisconsin after High School. Some backwater University in Wisconsin. Where he was an entirely new face. He met a couple friends there, science and paranormal nerds like himself. 

Then he got ballsy enough to stare into an unstable protoype of a machine he and those friends built. He got sick. And his bitterness only grew.   
First, he was bitter in his youth, and then he was bitter into his adulthood. 

He left the baskets on the porch, turned around, and walked back to his car. What a disaster. But he had to keep trying. Vlad Masters _couldn't_ end up in space. He just couldn't.

He went back home and took out a half-pint glass and some bourbon. Unfortunately to Vlad, because of his status as a Halfa, he couldn't get drunk. At least not easily.

Mads jumped on counter and headbutted Vlad's hand.

"She'd never believe a simple apology, you're right. But now where do I start? Do I start with mayoral duties and actually being a good Mayor? Or do I start with..._Jack_?"

Mrow

He filled and emptied his glass a few more times. "Let's start with the political stuff, I guess."

~~~~~

Vlad went to work on Monday, having absolutely no idea how to improve Amity and his reputation. 

He looked over small city laws and such that he'd passed and revoked over the few months he'd been mayor. The anti-ghost laws had been repealed long ago, but there was still _something _better he could do politically, right?

There wasn't. Overall, Amity wasn't a bad city. The only real "crime" was ghosts, and the city had their _Phantom_ to deal with that, despite calling him a criminal while also accepting his help with ghosts.

Local taxes weren't all that high. Amity was near some lakes but also had some good farming ground, as well as a pretty good season change each year. He could add more funding to the Amity School District, but that would involve a vote at the end of the year. 

Make more parks? Trees? People like trees. Trees  
are important. Vlad did that. An Ordinance for making Amity prettier and greener, but he knew that wasn't really the thing he should be working on. He needed to do something. 

He needed to try and fix things with Jack. On Jack's front, he thought, that wouldn't be too hard. Jack still thought they were best buds.

But Vlad? Vlad was petrified with a feeling almost akin to rage. How could he forgive Jack? Jack made Vlad lose _years_ of his youth. Stuck in a stuffy, awful hospital for so many years, until Vlad decided that he wasn't going to waste away anymore and he left and he made a life for himself. 

Not the most ethical way of doing that, but Vlad was bitter. He wanted to prove to anyone, everyone that he could be successful. He'd used his powers to cheat and steal and build up this entire lie of an identity. And now things were beginning to crumble as Vlad began to realize that those choices he had made and would make would inevitably lead to his slow death, floating through space for the rest of eternity.

He finished his work for the day and went home. His head spun with half-baked ideas, solutions, escapes, words, words, words, words. To many words. Words were just gibberish given meaning. Maddie was right. A simple apology would never fix anything, make anything that Vlad had done right. How could he atone? The weight of his sins, his vices, his unearthly bitterness made Vlad feel like Atlas, and everything weighing on his mild felt like the world. Vlad's world, his story would come to an end of he didn't try, but why did he care so much, he asked himself. 

**Author's Note:**

> this entire installment of the series is different now. this specific one is going to be long and have multiple chapters because they relate to Vlad trying to better himself


End file.
